Author | Wanzi
Editor | Xiang Wanwan
The New Year is approaching in the blink of an eye. At this time of year, the most talked about thing is the upcoming Spring Festival Gala.
Looking back on the Spring Festival Gala for more than 40 years, the "New Year's Eve dinner" that is served every New Year's Eve does not taste quite right.
Many people complained: The Spring Festival Gala is getting uglier every time.
was originally an audio-visual feast on New Year's Eve, but now it has gradually become a neglected New Year's Eve background music.
Some people even suggested that showing the previous Spring Festival Gala programs would be much better than the current Spring Festival Gala.
Especially the first Spring Festival Gala, it can be said to be the coolest and most daring Spring Festival Gala.
Although it was a temporary decision by the leaders, and there was no detailed planning or rehearsal, it became a god in one fell swoop, and almost no other Spring Festival Gala in the future could compare with it.
So, what is the magic of this first Spring Festival Gala, and how good is it?
1
There is no script or rehearsal, everything is improvised.
Preparing for a Spring Festival Gala is a very complicated project. Now every year, preparations start in May or June in the middle of the year, and intensive preparations are carried out around October, and then continue. Rehearsal drill.
But who would have thought that the first Spring Festival Gala in 1983 was held at the impromptu initiative of the leaders.
In November 1982, the then director of CCTV called Huang Yihe from the Department of Literature and Art and appointed him as the director of the 1983 CCTV employee New Year's Gala.
When Huang Yihe received this task, he felt that this party should make some innovations. It was always like before to record it and then play it on New Year's Eve. It was too unchallenging.
So he found a few good friends to discuss how to make this party more novel and unique.
Finally, they came up with a bold idea, live broadcast and use the audience's phone-on-demand program to promote the party.
This idea was passed back to the station and received the support of the station director.
Since the format of the party was innovative, the name also had to be changed. It was not until 10 days before the broadcast that the name was determined to be "Spring Festival Gala" , and it has been used to this day.
The first Spring Festival Gala is the most impressive one, and also the most "crazy" and "outrageous" one.
At around 7 o'clock that evening, Zhao Zhongxiang, who was broadcasting the news, was temporarily pulled over to record the opening speech. The director
handed him a piece of paper with about 4 to 5 minutes of content. Zhao Zhongxiang read it two or three times and then wrote it all down and started recording.
Then the time came to eight o'clock in the evening, and with the opening of an animation, the first Spring Festival Gala officially began.
The host of the party consisted of four actors, crosstalk actors Ma Ji and Jiang Kun, mime actor Wang Jingyu, and Liu Xiaoqing, a popular film and television actress at the time.
Now it seems that the Spring Festival Gala directing team really dares to use talents. Without a professional host, are they really not afraid that the party will be messed up?
But this is the kind of hosting team that not only hosts but also performs. The scene is busy and the audience enjoys it.
After more than 40 years of this Spring Festival Gala, the main reason why people are still talking about it is its program arrangement.
has no program list or rehearsal. Except for some programs prepared in advance, most of the programs are requested by phone calls from the audience. Director Huang Yihe of
had no idea that the audience would be so enthusiastic about requesting the program. The four hotspot phones prepared on site never stopped ringing.
Under high load operation, all four phones began to get hot and even began to emit black smoke.
The person in charge of the Spring Festival Gala was worried that something would happen if things continued like this, so they called in the fire brigade to cool down the phone, and they were able to persevere until the end. During the host's announcement,
staged funny clips that were comparable to official programs, and the audience laughed from ear to ear.
Liu Xiaoqing was about to announce the curtain, and Jiang Kun passed the message between Liu Xiaoqing and Ma Ji. Jiang Kun either couldn't remember the name of the singer or forgot to ask which group sang what song, so he ran back and forth two or three times.
finally stopped running and stood in the middle of the stage shouting at the top of his lungs. In the end, there was no need to announce the curtain, because the audience heard what was going to be performed next.
So there was really no script for the Spring Festival Gala that year, and it all relied on improvisation.
There is another scene where Liu Xiaoqing is also announcing the curtain, but she can't see clearly the handwriting on the audience's on-demand note. Wang Jingyu takes the note confidently, but he can't read it out either.
At this time Jiang Kun ran over, twirling the note in his hand while reading out the next program.
Wang Jingyu "angrily scolded" Jiang Kun, saying that no one wrote notes like him. Jiang Kun went on to say that he was writing around the table and no one else could care about it. His arrogant expression made the audience burst into laughter.
Unexpectedly, the host actually performed a "skit" here.
The first Spring Festival Gala, which had no planning or rehearsal, was carried out in a "panic". The whole process also left countless classic scenes, which will be unforgettable for the audience for a long time.
2
There are countless famous scenes that will be difficult to see again
The first program of the party was "New Year's Song" by teacher Li Guyi. The cheerful song brought the party into a happy and peaceful atmosphere.
But she didn't just sing this song.
In the second half of the party, because there were too many people calling to request Li Guyi's songs, she was left behind by the host just as she was about to leave the stage after singing one song, so she sang eight more songs one after another.
Six of the songs are solo and two are collaborations with other actors.
This has become a special concert for Teacher Li Guyi, which shows his huge popularity.
Something else happened during this process, which can be described as an unexpected surprise.
Originally, the song "Nostalgia" was not included in the songs prepared by Li Guyi, because this song was defined as a "forbidden song" by Mi Mi Music at the time, and it was impossible to perform it on the Spring Festival Gala stage, but many audiences called and requested Perform the song.
Director Huang Yihe felt troubled when he looked at the five plates of paper with "Nostalgia" written on them. He knew that he couldn't make the decision, so he could only ask his superiors for instructions. The leader of
saw that the audience's enthusiasm was so high. If he really didn't perform, the audience would be dissatisfied. So the leader stamped his feet and clapped his hands, and the audience heard "Nostalgia" as they wished.
The first Spring Festival Gala was great not only because it respected the audience's wishes to the extreme, but also because the actors at that time were able to perform for the audience sincerely without being pretentious.
Even if he used foul language in the show, the audience would still talk about it.
Teacher Siqin Gaowa, who played Huniu, is a real tiger.
When asked by the host to perform a show, Siqingaowa stood on the stage and said bluntly that it was too difficult to put on a show.
But fortunately she thought of it, she and Hu Songhua worked together, she danced with Hu Songhua, and Hu Songhua sang "Hymn".
After that, Siqin Gaowa and Yan Shunkai performed the show "Visiting the Factory" again. At this time, she was even more like a tiger girl and started using swear words, the kind of swear words that would be silenced.
During the performance, Wang Jingyu walked over with his roast chicken props. Huniu grabbed Wang Jingyu and dropped the roast chicken to the ground.
The audience cheered again. Look, this is really a Huniu!
The roast chicken prop that had just been ravaged by Hu Niu actually became a part of amusing the audience.
Wang Jingyu was a famous mime actor at the time. The show he was going to perform was the mime "Chicken Eating". When he came on stage, he found that the roast chicken was missing and he couldn't find it no matter how hard he looked for it.
Looking back, Jiang Kun was holding the roast chicken and eating it with gusto.
What should I do now? I was originally worried that the audience would not understand what was being performed during the pantomime, so the stage specially prepared a roast chicken as a prop.
Who made this prop chicken a real cooked roast chicken? No wonder Jiang Kun couldn't help but start eating with greed. He even handed Ma Ji a piece of chicken.
This wave of operations made the audience laugh to tears.
At this time, Wang Jingyu had no choice but to perform a pantomime without real objects. This also set a wonderful demonstration for Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao's sketch "Eating Noodles" the following year.
Even if there is no real thing, as long as there are exaggerated movements and expressions, the audience can receive those laughs.
In this Spring Festival Gala, there are even more unexpected programs.
The national treasure giant panda Weiwei was invited to perform on stage. Under the guidance of his trainer, he performed difficult acrobatic ball-topping with all four limbs and riding a rocking horse, which stunned the audience.
After that, he conducted another "eating broadcast", eating various snacks and drinking Moutai. Panda Weiwei made great contributions to this party.
In today’s society, this is unthinkable.
Each of these things seems crazy and outrageous when taken individually, but when combined together, it becomes the most interesting and beautiful Spring Festival Gala.
In fact, the venue for the first Spring Festival Gala did not have a large venue, and the actors and the audience all sat together; the equipment did not have good equipment, and the photography was a bit amateurish; and the communication technology was not as convenient and fast as it is now.
But people just miss the taste of the year forty years ago, and the simple funny and touching stories.
As time changes, the taste of the Spring Festival Gala has gradually changed.
3
When the Spring Festival Gala was only about "preaching" and "carrying hot topics", it was inevitable to be criticized
The first Spring Festival Gala was a good start for the subsequent Spring Festival Gala. Later Spring Festival Gala also left many classic moments for the audience. .
During the second Spring Festival Gala, the audience's "Eating Noodles" by Chen Peisi and Zhu Shimao made the audience laugh and their clothes buttons fell apart.
Li Furong and Zhang Xielin played a table tennis match at the scene, marking the first time for sports stars to attend the Spring Festival Gala.
Ma Ji's stand-up comedy "Universe Brand Cigarettes" satirizes the phenomenon of false advertising.
These all left a deep impression on the audience, and the second Spring Festival Gala was also a success.
Later, a number of excellent programs appeared on the stage of each Spring Festival Gala. People still remember the names of these programs.
Song Dandan's "Lazy Man Dating", she made the audience laugh with her nervousness and shyness when she said "My name is Wei Shufen, I am 29 years old and I am still unmarried".
Teacher Zhao Lirong's "A Day in the Life of a Heroic Mother", the sentence "Sima's vat was smashed up" with a Tangshan accent made all the audience go crazy with laughter.
In 1990, Zhao Benshan took to the Spring Festival Gala stage with the sketch "Blind Date", which started his era as the "King of Sketch".
From that time on, many people would say that when watching the Spring Festival Gala, they would wait to see Zhao Benshan’s sketch.
At the same time, there were Huang Hong's sketches, Guo Da Cai Ming's sketches, and Feng Gong Niuqun's cross talk, all of which were so joyful.
Looking at those singing performances, they are all performed by professional singers, which is an auditory enjoyment.
Fei Xiang's "A Fire in Winter" during the 1987 Spring Festival Gala captivated people across the country. In the 1989 Spring Festival Gala, Wei Wei's song "Love Devotion" made hundreds of millions of viewers cry.
In the 1993 Spring Festival Gala, Mao Ning's song "The Sound of the Waves Remains" made everyone remember his handsome face and melodious singing voice.
During the 1995 Spring Festival Gala, Lao Lang sang "My Deskmate You" affectionately, and instantly all the yearning for youth came to my mind.
Previous Spring Festival Galas have left us with more beautiful memories.
But looking at the Spring Festival Gala now, I really don’t know how to comment.
The theme of the sketch is no longer simply about delivering happiness, but at the end it also educates people.
Zhao Benshan once said: "In fact, the biggest theme of the Spring Festival Gala sketches is happiness. It is unrealistic to use a program to educate people. After a year of education, we have to educate people on the last day. What's the use? "
Xiao Shenyang once said that he has given up on sketches, because the sketches now have happy endings.
But skits are actually about conveying happiness, so why do they have to be sensational.
Speaking of this, some people can't help but think of a skit "First Meeting in the Photo Studio" from last year's Year of the Rabbit Spring Festival Gala. The audience felt like they were sitting on pins and needles, like thorns on their backs, and like a lump in their throats watching this show.
The reason why the current Spring Festival Gala is not good to watch is not only the theme of the program has changed, but there is another very important reason.
Netizens all said that the previous Spring Festival Gala created hot memes, and then this meme would be popular for a year, but now the developed Internet creates hot memes, and after being popular for a year, it was moved to the Spring Festival Gala again.
This year’s Spring Festival Gala hasn’t even started yet. The “programme” has been circulated on the Internet for a long time, including “Princess Please Get in the Car”, “Zun Du Fake Du”, “Dinosaur Fights Wolf”, “i people and e people, we are all a family”. The prediction was accurate. A program like
that is filled with Internet memes may really be nothing to watch. Young people understand those memes and will feel nothing but embarrassment when watching them.
Some people who have never heard of those memes probably can’t even laugh because they can’t catch the funny point.
Looking back at past Spring Festival Gala shows, the sketch actors performed sketches seriously, the singers only sang, and professional people did professional things.
But now, there are always a few film and television actors in the sketches, and the songs and dances have to be performed by a bunch of actors and stars, which makes people dance.
This may be why people often complain that the Spring Festival Gala programs are getting worse and worse.
If the Spring Festival Gala continues to go further and further down the road of "preaching" and "carrying hot topics", there is a high probability that future Spring Festival Galas will still not win the hearts of the people.
is written at the end:
On New Year’s Eve, happiness and reunion are the biggest themes of the Spring Festival Gala.
sincerely hopes that future Spring Festival Galas will respect the needs of the audience more, innovate higher-quality evening shows, and pass on the legend of the first Spring Festival Gala like before.
I hope that there will be a Spring Festival Gala that can remind us of the innocent and beautiful era before.
